About two years after the South Korean government filed a lawsuit against North Korea for unilaterally blowing up the inter-Korean liaison office in 2020, the first court hearing has taken place. 

On Wednesday the Seoul Central District Court held the first hearing in the case, in which South Korea is seeking 44-point-seven billion won, or over 30 million U.S. dollars, in damages.

The court asked justice and unification ministry officials who appeared as the government’s representatives to provide additional evidence to support the claim of damages worth 44-point-seven billion won.

The inter-Korean liaison building was completed in 2007 and used for inter-Korean exchanges.

But in June 2020, North Korea blew up the building after taking issue with defector groups launching anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the inter-Korean border.